Building the Elecraft K3 is a joy. The engineering design that has gone into the radio is amazing. The tolerances of the case fittings are fantastic. I have actually built three of these so far (only one for me unfortunately) and they were all straightforward to do.

I have had mine for just about a year and it has not disappointed me yet! I don't expect it to either.

What follows is a quick look at how to build a K3 from opening the box to operating. I hope you find it useful.

The Elecraft K3

When the K3 arrives it comes in one large box. The first thought on opening the box is how many other boxes are inside it! They are extremely well packed too.

The first thing you should do is find the manual and the errata and annotate your manual. Once that is done, inventorying the parts is useful. A thought at this point. It is very easy to end up with stuff everywhere. There are so many packets and boxes that it is easy to lose things, so try and work in a logical manner.

The other thing to do is to ensure you have an antistatic mat and wristband. There are many static sensitive components on the K3 boards and the last thing you want to do is to create a problem that might not show up immediately but arrive later when you have no idea what caused it If you are spending this amount of money on a radio, it is worth an extra few pounds to buy an anti-static mat and accessories. Every workbench should have an anti-static area in this day and age.